coherent
/koʊˈhɛɹ.ənt/adjective
coherent is spelled C-O-H-E-R-E-N-T: 8 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 4.3 times per million words in written English, the 12,397th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, coherent means “Unified; sticking together; making up a whole” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in coherent?
| Letters | 8: C-O-H-E-R-E-N-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.3 times per million words; the 12,397th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is coherent?
Coherent appears 4.3 times per million words in written English, the 12,397th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce coherent?
- UK /kəʊˈhɪə.ɹənt/
- US /koʊˈhɛɹ.ənt/
- US /koʊˈhiɹ.ənt/
Coherent has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-coherent.ogg, En-us-coherent.ogg, En-au-coherent.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with coherent?
3 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as coherent from its last stressed vowel (/ɛɹənt/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of coherent
- more coherent comparative
- most coherent superlative
- cohærent
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does coherent mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Unified; sticking together; making up a whole.
- 2
Orderly, logical and consistent.
- 3
Aesthetically ordered.
- 4
Having a natural or due agreement of parts; harmonious: a coherent design.
- 5
Of waves having the same direction, wavelength and phase, as light in a laser.
- 6
Attaching or pressing against an organ of the same nature.
- 7
Belonging to a specific class of sheaves having particularly manageable properties closely linked to the geometrical properties of the underlying space. See Coherent sheaf on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- 8
In a technical sense, determined by the (topology of) the subsets. Formally, Such that 𝒯 is the finest topology on T for which the inclusion maps ιₐ:C_a→T are continuous, where each C_a is considered with its subspace topology.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Coherent in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | kohärent, zusammenhängend , schlüssig, widerspruchsfrei, folgerichtig |
| Portuguese | coerente |
| Spanish | coherente |
| French | cohérent |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does coherent come from?
From Middle French coherent, from Latin cohaērēns, from co- + haereō. By surface analysis, cohere + -ent.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).